Heavy Enough?

The following is a republication of a post by HWM Sarge on the
Blueprint forum, itself a republication of his article on Halo Wheel Men
forums. The original article was no longer available (the forums at HWM
are no longer available it appears). So I took the liberty of copying
the article from Blueprint (itself in a state of quasi-hibernation) to
preserve the original material of my citation.

My gamertag is "HWM Sarge" and I am a captain of the Wheelmen Clan. My
Halo: Reach focus is Invasion, but I was a hardcore BTB veteran in Halo
3(BTB 5-star general).

Due to the recent focus on creating heavy
maps for Matchmaking, I feel compelled to voice some thoughts about
heavy maps themselves and what makes them heavy. For many of the maps
I've seen, forgers have overloaded the map with vehicles, particularly
the Scorpion tank. I personally do not believe that the Scorpion tank
alone makes a map heavy, and is a requirement. Additionally, the Gauss
Hog is also not required for a map to be heavy.

The owner of the Wheelman site, HWM BrickFungus wrote, when we discussed heavies:

[Lots of vehicular action is] what heavies can be about.

What
I hated about H3 heavies is the amount of power weapons. I realize you
needed something to counter the heavy vehicles, but there were like
missile pods & lasers galore and you couldn't even get a hog
running.

IMO heavies should be about hot heavy on heavy action.
Gauss taking on the gauss, gauss on banshee, tank on gauss, your mom vs
my mom. Let it be about the vehicles.

Though to make it work, the vehicles need a "safe" spawn point, to allow them to at least get rolling and have a chance.

I'm
not a map designer, but I think this could be a fun way to play. I once
did rat's nest with only pistols, to force the hog on hog action and it
was great.

Brick is the owner of the Wheelman site
and is a casual gamer who gets on to run hogs and have a good time. In
Halo 3, he was a Warthog driver. In a later post, HWM RJ voiced his own
thoughts about the two different styles of Heavy maps in reaction to
what brick posted. RJ was a footsoldier in Halo 3, and was what we
called a "laser humper."

Yes, but what happens after a vehicle wins one of those battles? The vehicle then has free reign of the map for a while.

The way I see it there are two philosophies as far as Heavies goes:A)
Vehicles on Vehicles (Brick) where there are fewer power weapons. Skill
gaps are magnified, but produces fun gameplay if you're the more
skilled team.B) Vehicles on Power Weapons where there are lots of
power weapons for infantry to neutralize vehicles. This limits the
ability to dominate the map with a power vehicle, but can also devolve
into frustrating, power weapon only gameplay when two good teams match
each other.

I think style A is more appealing to vehicle lovers
and style B is more favorable to ground pounders for obvious reasons. I
don't think either school of thought is right or wrong, and theres
definitely room for middle ground. I also think that each style has its
place on certain maps. Valhalla and Avalanche were definitely style B,
but Sandtrap was more like A. Standoff was more a middle ground for the
fact that it magnified skill gap, but evenly matched teams often got
bogged down in long range combat and often couldn't get vehicles up for
effective runs.

For Reach, I think that less power weapons is
better because vehicles now take damage. It will be different based on
the maps, but I think lasers should be neutral, and you should give each
team rockets and sniper. This way, they have to choose whether to use
them against infantry or vehicles. I also think that sticky grenades
could play a larger role in heavy gametypes.

/2 cents

I've
spent a good deal of time over the last week thinking about heavies
from Halo 3 and I've come up with what I think are the key components to
heavy maps:

(Please note that I stress increasing, not decreasing. Heavies is about adding to what already exists.)

1. Increased Vehicular Gameplay

On
a heavy map, players should expect to see more vehicle vs. vehicle
action rather than footsoldier vs. footsoldier action. However, there
are never so many vehicles that every player on the team has to be in a
vehicle to be effective at all. However, the vehicular gameplay does not
greatly alter the overall play of the map.

2. Increased Cover

The
heavy variants of the map added additional cover on extreme edges of
the maps to allow players to traverse around the outside of the map
against the vehicles on the map. They also add additional cover around
the middle of maps to help players control the usual power positions
against heavy vehicles.

3. Increased Map Travel Speed

Heavies
is indeed about vehicle gameplay, but footsoldiers also need to be able
to move about the map. Footsoldiers must be able to attack the vehicles
on foot, because they will not always be capable of using their own
vehicles if the enemy team has a strong setup. Additionally, players
going for objectives need to be able to quickly get back to the front
lines to attack vehicles. In Halo 3, additional teleporters helped speed
up foot travel around the map to keep up with the speed of the
vehicles.

4. Retention of Map Pathing

The
most important part of heavies that I believe has been lost with the
Halo: Reach attempts at heavy variants has been a negligence of the
original pathing of the map. If players are going to be able to enjoy a
heavy variant of a map, they should feel comfortable using much of the
typical pathing they used on the normal version of the maps. Players
could still play their BR line on Standoff Heavy, they often controlled
the hill on Valhalla Heavy, they still controlled their teleporter and
the keyhole on Avalanche, and they tried to maintain control of the
laser spawns on Sandtrap. Heavies should not disrupt or drastically
alter the standard pathing of the map.

As part of the retention
of map pathing, the spawns of the game did not change in the heavy
variants. Often times on the Reach heavy variants I've seen, forgers
have removed the original spawns and placed their own. Intelligent
players know how to calculate and predict where players will spawn.
Additionally, players will use their typical awareness of the map when
they come out of spawns based on what they're used to. Do not alter the
original spawns of the map.

I will now briefly discuss the vehicle gameplay and power weapon balance of the Halo 3 Heavy Maps:

Avalanche:

Avalanche
always played defensively, and the heavy variant of Avalanche played
the same way as well. A typical Avalanche game revolved around 2-3
players on each team fighting at Upper keyhole to keep players off their
side of the map as well as an attempt to take control of the other
team's upper keyhole. One team would typically hold laser on their side
of the map at turret. Each team would run their hornet to help keep
vehicles and players off of their side, and Warthogs would often push
around the bend to try and disrupt the other side of the map.

The
Heavy variant of Avalanche played this way as well. The Hornet focused
more on control of Upper. Each team had their own laser, and there was a
neutral laser at it's original spawn that never respawned. The Scorpion
tanks would focus on keeping the other vehicles off of their side.
Sometimes vehicles would push around the bend, but often players would
use the two-way teleporters at the collection of boxes near the cliff to
quickly travel to the opposing team's side of the map to get behind
them.

Even though Avalanche heavy added a chopper, a Scorpion, a
Wraith, a Prowler, and two more lasers, the overall gameplay of the map
did not change drastically. Rather than BR battles, however, we saw
more vehicle battles. Lastly, the Avalanche base was large enough that
players could maintain control of their side of the map even if they got
pushed back into their base. They had a laser spawn in their base, and a
rocket spawn at their turret, so they could maintain control of their
base and attempt to kill the vehicles off of their side of the map.
Also, none of the vehicles were so powerful that they were invincible.

Sandtrap:

Sandtrap
was my favorite heavy because it fit very well with the idea of
vehicles fighting vehicles. Team on standard Sandtrap understood that
the most important part of Sandtrap was about controlling your team's
spawns because of the dynamic spawning. Sandtrap was also the largest of
the Halo 3 maps. Sandtrap's gameplay focused heavily on controlling one
of the two temples and controlling the laser spawns.

Sandtrap
heavy played similarly. There were four lasers placed at the start of
the game, but only the two normal lasers respawned. This helped control
the Guass hogs, Scorpions, and Banshees at the early stages of the game,
but afterwards it dissolved into laser and vehicle control. Now, teams
also focused on controlling the Scorpion spawns near the lasers because
the tanks could control the Gauss hogs.

Sandtrap heavy replaces
one Warthog with a Gauss Hog, adds two scorpions and two Wraiths, adds a
Prowler, and an additional Banshee. It also added additional cover near
the new Banshee spawn. Overall, the Sandtrap layout has not changed
dramatically. There are just more vehicular threats that players must
account for.

Standoff:

Standoff Heavy is
unique in that it became a heavy variant without adding a tank, and it
is why I do not believe that a Scorpion tank is required to make a map
heavy. Rather, a heavy version of a map is just a vehicular heavy
version. It is not heavy in the sense that there's a tank on the map.

Typical
Standoff gameplay involved players controlling their rocks in front of
their base, controlling the neutral respawning laser, and attempting to
push the opposing team's side with the help of the Warthog.

Standoff
Heavy focuses more on long-range combat. After removing the neutral
laser, additional cover was placed on the BR line of rocks and in the
center of the map to disrupt vehicular paths, but both teams had their
own laser, Sniper, and Beam Rifle. Teams also had an additional Rocket
spawn and Banshee. As such, snipers focused heavily on keeping each
other suppressed, lasers focused on keeping the Gauss hog, chain hog,
Choppers, and Banshes suppressed. The remaining footsoldiers often
pushed forward with rockets to push the opposing team's side with the
help of their Gauss hog and Banshee.

Standoff Heavy increased
map movement speed by extending the sightlines and providing close range
players more firepower. Instead of the entire team pushing forward on
the BR line, snipers helped suppress players with the help of their
snipers and lasers. Overall, though, players still felt like they were
on Standoff. The biggest bonus Standoff has is the size of its base.
Even if the opposing team had a gauss running around outside and a
banshee picking off people, players could still hole up in their base
and wait for laser and stickies to spawn to deal with the hogs.

Valhalla:

Basic
Valhalla strategy always revolved around the hill. Control the hill,
and once controlled, control the Pelican and the turret. Both teams had a
sniper hanging back, and tried to use their Warthogs and Banshees to
push forward for victory while controlling the neutral laser.

Valhalla
heavy did not deviate far from this. To increase map movement speed,
each base had a one-way teleporter inside of it to get players to the
turret and/or Pelican (depending on the version of the map). Teams used
their Scorpion and Wraith to control their side of the map and to keep
vehicles off their side of the map. Each team also had their own laser,
and rockets replaced the neutral laser with additional cover on the
hill. Overall, the gameplay of this map did not change much. After
taking down opposing vehicles, players pushed forward in an attempt to
secure a flag, or sat back in slayer to bait players into death if they
could not push forward and take control of the opposing team's spawns.

Conclusion to Heavies

That's
the basic rundown of Halo 3 heavies. Heavies is about adding to the
current versions of the maps, not completely redoing them. Additionally,
it's not about putting down so many vehicles that everyone is in a
vehicle. It's about putting down enough vehicles to encourage vehicular
warfare.